Potter and the Griffin of Hermynus
by tadiwamtema
Summary: Harry, Ron and Hermione battle a series of extremely dangerous magical creatures including the the infamous Griffin of Hermynus sent by Voldemort in their sixth year at Hogwarts. Shocking deaths, a pregnancy and unexpected love triangles also bring their world crashing down...
1. Chapter 1

Hermione looked at her watch and sighed.

'Harry's very late,' she said, glancing at the trapdoor where Harry was supposed to have appeared thirty minutes ago. 'If he's not here in twenty-five minutes, the potion's not going to work.'

Ron looked down at the bubbling green contents of the cauldron. An eye floated to the surface of the potion and gave him a steely glare. He shuddered.

'Are you sure about that?' Ron said. 'Because Seamus said – '

'Seamus doesn't know what he's talking about. A Death Potion can only work over a certain amount of time,' Hermione said. 'Besides, he's not very good at Potions, is he? The last time I checked, he liquified his cauldron.'

Ron sniggered, stopping only when a second eye emerged from the cauldron's depths.

'Ugh, I wish they'd stop doing that,' he said in disgust. Hermione waved her wand and the two eyes disappeared into the green potion with a loud _pop._

It was night time and Ron and Hermione were at the top of the Astronomy Tower, waiting for Harry to arrive from his usual detention with Professor Snape. Snape liked prolonging the detentions, especially with Harry. That's because he hated Harry.

'I'm freezing,' said Hermione, stretching her hands out towards the fire that roared beneath the cauldron. It was a winter night and snow lay in patches around them. A cold wind was blowing relentlessly and bit their faces. 'I should have brought my fur coat.'

'Here, take my jacket,' Ron said, taking it off and holding it out to her. She took it and wrapped it gratefully around her.

'That's better,' Hermione sighed.

'How long d'you think it'll take that thing to crack?' Ron said, nodding at something behind Hermione.

'I don't know,' Hermione replied, closing her eyes, trying not to think about the 'thing' that lay covered entirely, imprisoned tightly in a dark cloak behind her. It had been squirming weakly all this time but when it heard itself being mentioned, it started twiching rather violently.

'Oh, where is Harry?' she moaned, and she surprised Ron by jumping to her feet.

'Calm down, he'll be - hey! Where are you going?' Ron added when Hermione started walking towards the trapdoor.

'I can't stand being close to that thing for another minute. Come on, we're going to get Harry.'

'But he's in detention! With _Snape._ There's no way we'll get him out of there.'

'I don't know how we'll do it; we'll lie and say McGonagall needs all Gryffindors in the Common Room or something,' Hermione said desperately.

Ron looked at her disbelievingly.

'Hermione Granger lying to a teacher?' he snorted. 'Wow. Is it really that bad?'

'No, it isn't, Ron,' Hermione said irritably, sarcastically. 'Now get in here, please.'

She pulled the Invisibility Cloak from within a pocket and spread it out in front of her so that Ron could get under it first.

'Wait, what about the Hevera?' Ron said, looking at the fidgetting creature.' We can't leave it here by itself, it could somehow ruin the potion and we won't be able to kill it.'

'_Petrificus Totalus,_' Hermione muttered, her wand pointed at the Hevera. It stopped moving at once.

'There,' she said. 'Can we go now?'

Ron looked uncertainly at the motionless Hevera, shrugged and went underneath the Cloak.

'You're the boss,' he said, as they opened the trapdoor and descended the spiral staircase.

They didn't even bother to close it.

**TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK…**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Harry sat at a small desk in Professor Snape's heavily scented office, his mind racing. He had to go and meet Ron and Hermione now before it was too late to kill the vile creature that had caused much havoc in the wizarding world. The Hevera. About two weeks ago, the Hevera had killed a number of well-known wizards including Fiona Goonsbee, the main journalist of the _Daily Prophet _and Thomas Fudge, a famous Auror and cousin to Cornelius Fudge. Onlookers said the victims were killed by strangulation.

People began to live in fear. They rarely left their houses and began buying alarming amounts pepper spray, which came in very handy because the Hevera would go blind for three minutes, giving someone enough time to escape. It felt as if the Hevera was actually Voldemort.

When Harry, Ron and Hermione went to the Burrow for Christmas a week ago, to their very great surprise, they found the Hevera lurking behind a clump of bushes. A truly disgusting thing it was. It resembled a house elf, except it was slightly smaller and had large, blood-colored eyes. Its mouth contained numerous razor sharp teeth and its hands had very long fingers, perfect for strangling. After a furious struggle, which involved a broken nose for Harry, a bleeding lip for Hermione and a few hairs yanked out for Ron, they managed to subdue the Hevera. Secretly, they took it upstairs to Ron's room, bound it tightly in a cloak and put it in Harry's trunk. They did not want anyone to know as that would have attracted too much attention, especially from the Ministry, and the only way to kill it was to give it a Death Potion. That meant doing it at school. At the top of the Astronomy tower.

Harry fidgetted in his chair and cleared his throat loudly. Snape, who was seated behind his desk and reading a large volume, looked up.

"Yes?' he hissed.

'I was wondering if I could go now, sir?' Harry said.

Snape surveyed him for a while then buried his greasy nose into the book again, as if Hary hadn't said anything. He's gonna smear the pages, Harry thought, he's gonna smear the pages with his –

'Potter!' Snape snarled. 'Need I remind you that I am accomplished when it comes to reading minds? You are disturbing my concentration.'

Harry's heart skipped a beat. What if he knows about the Hevera? What if he reads Harry's mind and sees the Hevera?

"Where are you so eager to go Potter?' Snape said quietlt, his eyes scrutinizing Harry's.

Harry knew he was doing it now so he tried to think of something else, anything else, like desperately wanting to use the loo.

Snape looked revolted and Harry felt satisfied.

'Give me your lines,' he said coldly.

Harry stood up and held the paper with 'I will not swear at my teacher again' written repeatedly on it to Snape. Snape snatched it from him just as the silence was interrupted by a polite knock on the door.

'Come in!' Snape Harry's surprise, Ron and Hermione entered, looking very flushed. Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Hermione gave him a look that said _shut up!_

'What do you want?' Snape demanded.

'Please, sir,' Hermione said, 'but Harry has to come and finish his Transfiguration essay or else he'll be in trouble with Professor McGonagall tomorrow.'

Snape narrowed his eyes, looked from Harry to Hermione to Ron, who stood there looking very grim, and said,' There's something that you three are up to. But I will not question it. You may go, Potter, and next time you use any vulgar speech in my lesson I will get you expelled.'

Harrry gave a curt 'thank you' then hurried out of the room with Ron and Hermione.

'We need to hurry!' Hermione burst out once they were two floors away from Snape and they started to jog under the Invisibility cloak through the deserted hallways.

''Snape's a real nosy scumbag, isn't he?' Ron said.

'Yes, it's like he knows,' said Harry. 'I tried; he wouldn't let me go out.'

'It's not going to work, I just know it! That means we'll have to keep it for another three days!'

'Hermione, relax!' Ron said, as they began to climb the spiral staircase that led to the trapdoor.

When they reached the top, Hermione cursed herself for leaving the door open.

'How could I?' Hermione sobbed as they emerged at the top of the tower.

'Oh no,' Ron said, 'where is it?'

They all looked around and saw nothing except the abandoned cloak. The Hevera had escaped.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hermione immediately sank to the ground and sat on a heap of snow.

"Oh, no," she echoed Ron, her voice shaking, her face in her hands. She compeletely ignored the fact that her bottom was getting wet.

"We need to find it, now," Harry said seriously, his eyes still scanning the place. The fire was still burning underneath the simmering cauldron.

"Where, though?" Ron asked. He wanted to tell Hermione off for not listening to him but since she was in such despair he decided to let it go.

"I dunno," Harry said. "You shouldn't have come to get me, Snape was about to let me out."

"But I don't know how it could have escaped I put a full Body-Bind curse on it," Hermione sobbed.

"Yeah, well there's no point crying now because that won't solve anything," Harry said angrily. He expected Hermione to look affronted and start defending herself but she stood up, dried her backside with her wand, wiped her tears and marched to the trapdoor.

"Let's go, we're wasting time," she said shakily to the other two, holding the Invisibilty cloak out in front of her to let them get under it, as she had done before. Harry and Ron drew their wands and let the Cloak engulf them.

They went down the spiral staircase and skirted along a corridor lined with suits of armor. The Hevera could have been anywhere, hiding, lurking behind an ugly gargoyle, poised to attack. They weren't sure if it could see through Invisibility Cloaks and this made them uneasy. Harry's mind started racing again. What if it kills someone, an unaware student or an oblivious teacher? They hurried through the halls, their senses working madly, their wands at the ready. No Hevera. It's when they passed Pansy Parkinson and Ernie MacMillan kissing ferociously behind a tall suit of armor that they decided to go to Dumbledore.

"We don't have a choice or else it'll attack them" Harry whispered.

"Ugh, Pansy Parkinson? Of all the girls he's snogging that cow!"Hermione said, repulsed.

"Just like you went snogging Krum and Malfoy," Ron muttered.

"I did NOT snog Malfoy. He snogged me," Hermione hissed, hurt.

"Stop,"Harry interrupted Ron. "Can we just go to Dumbledore?"

They made their way in angry silence through dark passages to Dumbledore's office and soon they arrived in front of the gargoyle.

"Er," Harry said. He didn't know the password.

"Don't you know the password?"Hermione asked Harry. She was still in some kind of frightenned state but she was forcing herself to be level-headed.

"No."

Ron started saying series of names of sweets to the stone gargoyle from Flavored Beans to Fizzing Whizzbee. When he said Enchanting Eclairs, it came to life, leapt aside and showed them a wall splitting in two to reveal an escalting staircase. They jumped onto it and started moving upwards to a shiny oak door.

Hermione knocked gently on the door and Dumbledore's voice said, "Come in" sharply. They took off the Cloak, stuffed it Ron's jacket and entered.

He sat behind his desk in his round office, an old man with a long beard. His blue eyes looked at them seriously.

"Professor Dumbledore, a Hevera has just escaped and is within the school!" Harry blurted out before he could stop himself.

Dumbledore stood up, walked over to them so that he was a polite distance away and said, "Is it within the school or it has gone out of its boundaries?"

Harry looked at him and marvelled at how calm Dumbledore was being. Also, he thought of the possibility that the Hevera might have escaped the school.

Just then a scream, a cry of help travelled across the whole castle and reverberated againts its stony walls. Hermione gasped and Professor Dumbledore, looking very grave, said, "Put that cloak on and go fetch Professor Hagrid!" before storming out of the room, his wand drawn.

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	4. Chapter 4

They hurried down the spiral staircase in Dumbledore's wake, their hearts beating, a cloud of fear fogging their thoughts. It seemed crucial to Dumbledore that they remained under the cloak. With all the effort they could muster, they kept their feet and ankles hidden, determined not to be seen, as they creeped down the empty Entrance Hall, opened the double doors and spilled into the grounds.

A blanket of snow covered the ground for yards and emitted a pearly glow, playing tricks on their eyes. They neared Hagrid's hut, their feet sinking in the snow. Harry wasn't sure if Hagrid was even there and the sight of no smoke trickling out of his chimney and the hostile, dark windows made his heart sink.

'Do you think he's sleeping?' Hermione whispered.

'I dunno,' was Ron's reply.

After they knocked a couple of times and heard no thuds of huge feet walking and no booming barks from Fang, they decided he wasn't there. But Hermione said, 'Look!' pointing at the snowy ground. Footprints the size of watermelons had been made and continued in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

'So, we've got to go in there?' Ron said grimly, his breath condensing in the cold air.

'Looks like it,' Harry said.

'Do you think we should take the cloak off? It'd slow us down ,'Hermione said.

'Directly disobeying Dumbledore's orders?' Ron said. 'I don't think so.'

Drawing their wands, they followed Hagrid's huge footprints and soon they were at the edge of the Forest.

'It's our fault if anyone died, you know that right?' Hermione said and Harry looked sideways at her to see tears running down her face.

'Blimey,' Ron muttered.

As they began to walk down a snow-free, earthy path, Harry imagined a body lying on the floor in the Fat Lady's corridor surrounded by sobbing teachers and students. The body belonging to Rhonda or Paula or Ginny, with strangle marks on the neck and chin area. The Hevera also had a taste for raw meat and Harry visualised a chunk of flesh missing from the abdomen, blooding oozing onto the stone floor.

'No,' he said firmly to Hermione, ' no one's dead.'

After jogging under the cloak for a few minutes, past silent, watching owls and snow-clad trees, they stopped near a cluster of bushes and decided to call Hagrid's name into the darkness.

'Hagrid! Hagrid!'

He didn't answer, maybe because he was too far away or he didn't want to scare whatever creature he had come in the Forest for.

'You know, I don't think Hagrid's the only person who can control this thing,' Ron said.

'Yeah, but he IS the one who knows these creatures the most,' said Harry.

'I wonder who screamed,' Hermione said, her eyes fixed at a far-off point, lost in thought. 'It sounded like it came from the kitchens.'

Hufflepuff, Harry thought. If anyone at Hogwarts deserved to be attacked, it wouldn't be a Hufflepuff. So at least Rhonda and Ginny were safe. But what about Paula?

'What's that?' Hermione said very sharply. She pointed at something lying on the ground, something large. Harry heart skipped a beat as he moved closer to the mound. All was quiet and still.

'No!' cried Hermione, breaking the silence.

Hagrid lay face down on the snow, motionless, his arms spread out.

'Hagrid!' Harry said, his voice quivering, but before he could do so much as touch Hagrid, he saw the eyes, gleaming in the darkness, as red as blood. They could've been Voldermort's if they weren't so big. And standing beside it, in league with it, it seemed, was a pale-faced Seamus Finnigan.

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	5. Chapter 5

Harry was still processing what was going on when he felt a hand pull him roughly to the ground. A bright green light illuminated the snowy ground and a snarling sound came from above. Harry instinctively rolled over and pulled out his wand. He aimlessly shot a Stunning spell and he heard Hermione scream in protest; it had nearly hit her.

'Harry! Look out!'

Harry wheeled about but the Hevera was already upon him, fangs bared. Together they toppled to the ground and Harry's wand left his hand. The Hevera was on top of him and the cold fingers locked around his neck, pressing mercilessly against his flesh. He looked into those scarlet eyes and knew that the Hevera was going to kill him there and then; there was no way he could fight of those long, capable fingers. But when he heard Seamus's voice say, 'Dristaris Foreti!' and Hermione screech, 'No! Ron!', he summoned all his strength and reached for his wand; he shot a stunner at the Hevera and it was thrown backwards into a bush. Heaving for air, Harry looked around and saw Hermione locked in a duel with Seamus. Ron lay on the ground and Harry was relieved to see him stirring feebly.

'It's okay! I have him!' Hermione bellowed when Harry moved closer to curse Seamus. 'Tend to Ron!

Harry bent down over Ron and shouted his name several times. Ron opened his eyelids and muttered, 'Remove it.'

Harry looked at Ron's shoulder and saw a dagger inserted not very deep in it. Harry pulled at it and a dark green smoke billowed from the wound.

'What is it?' Ron asked weakly.

'Dunno.'

'Where's Mynee?'

'She's duelling Seamus.'

Harry felt something hit the ground and when he looked up he expected to see Hermione standing over Seamus. But it was the other way round.

Seamus pointed his wand at Harry and they immediately began to duel. Harry

could not understand what was going on. Seamus! Their fellow Gryffindor attacking them!

'Seamus, why are you doing this?' Harry roared but Seamus, with a look of hatred on his face, did not reply. He only kept firing dangerous spells at Harry and it was all Harry could do to deflect them.

After a few minutes of heated battle, Seamus yelled, ' Dristaris Foreti!' and Harry knew that he was defeated. With the force of a punch, a dagger was plunged into his shoulder and he fell back, landing hard onto the ground. A searing pain emanated from his shoulder to the rest of his body and he began to feel dizzy again.

Harry heard Seamus make a triumphant sound, walk over to a tall oak and mutter something under his breath. Within seconds, swooshing sounds were in the air and, with a terrific jolt of his heart, Harry saw strange beings landing from flight. It was dark and the dark green gas was steadily spreading to the rest of his body, clouding his brain, so that he could not exactly tell what they were.

Seamus walked to the bush where the Hevera lay stunned and said the counter curse. It woke up and joined the creatures that were now gathering around Seamus as he spoke.

'We have captured Potter and now we take him to...'

Harry blacked out before Seamus could finish his sentence.


End file.
